China goes… Kosher?

I think this one is just hilarious - Bloomberg’s “China Goes Kosher as Exporters Use Rabbis to Reassure Consumers” :

Chinese exporters, facing a U.S. backlash over tainted food products, are turning to an unlikely group of inspectors to help clean up their act: Jewish rabbis.

Kosher certifications by rabbis have doubled to more than 300 in China in the past two years, according to the Orthodox Union, a New York-based organization that does inspections. The group expects thousands more plants to get certified in the next few years, covering everything from spices and chemical additives to frozen berries, sliced garlic and beef.

Chinese exporters, eager to gain access to the $11.5 billion U.S. kosher market, had already begun seeking the certifications before the uproar over contaminated seafood, toothpaste and pet food began last year. Now, after a rush of recalls, the rabbis say the companies are paying for the inspections to ease growing concern among U.S. consumers about imports from China.

 But the Chinese didn’t know what they had coming. Jewish law regarding food is an endless saga of unimaginable details. Trust me, I know.

And many companies weren’t ready for the grilling the rabbis gave them on their first visits to their plants, seeing it as a sign of distrust. “In China, everything works on relationships,” said Grunberg of the Orthodox Union, which certifies more than 400,000 products worldwide.

But, somehow, it still works. Chinese are serious people, following through to the end …

“We are experiencing phenomenal growth,” said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer of the kosher-certification body.

While the rabbis see to it that the products adhere to such laws as prohibitions on pork and the mixing of meat and dairy, they don’t perform scientific food-safety tests.

“There is definitely marketing power to have a kosher symbol on products,” said Mark Overland, who directs the kosher and organic department at Cargill Inc., the largest U.S. agricultural company. “But it would be a misnomer to equate kosher with food safety.”

Many consumers disagree. Buyers of kosher products — the majority of whom in the U.S. are non-Jews — are seeking healthy and safe products, according to a 2005 survey by Lubicom, a marketing firm specializing in kosher products.

If I wouldn’t read this in Bloomberg, I probably wouldn’t believe it. Seeking Kosher as means of verifying the food’s safe enough when it’s from China.

:S